Thanks! I actually scrapped this idea a little bit ago because I felt it was too gimmicky and not solid enough. I also came up with this idea recently after playing FFXIV and being inspired by the White Mage's Rescue ability.

Introducing the War Medic. Replacing the Berserker, the War Medic gives Seeq a healing job that can still dole out the pain. Similar to the Moogle Hero but with less emphasis on magic and defense, the War Medic is all about getting up close to the enemy and pummeling them to death, all while being able to rescue allies in need and heal them when they need it most. Combat Clinic, Maim and Mend, Blast Wave, and Sinew are all based on Physical attack, meaning they can be boosted by Sinew (for a large, temporary boost next turn), or by Doc's Code (which grants a smaller, permanent Attack Up which can also stack with Sinew). Doc's Code allows the user to buff up and get close to the target, or run away if the situation calls for it. Berserkers will likely have reduced HP from their current pool, to make them a little less tanky.

Thoughts?

SCREAM -> RESCUEDraws an ally towards the user and bestows Regen.

HONE SENSES -> SANCTUARYRemoves all debuffs from surrounding units.

FURORE -> LUREDraws an enemy towards the user and reduces its Defense.

GROUND SHAKER -> COMBAT CLINICRestores a large amount of HP to a unit close to the user.

INNER CALM -> BLAST WAVEDeals physical damage to units in a line and knocks them back.

HELM SMASH -> DOC'S CODEMakes the user invincible until their next turn and bestows Attack Up.

SMASH -> SINEWDamages an adjacent enemy and bestows Focus on the user, increasing their next physical attack damage as well as Combat Clinic and Maim and Mend.

Modding version: PSX & WotL

Discord username: eternal248#1817

"You, no less human than we? Ha! Now there's a beastly thought. You've been less than we from the moment your baseborn father fell upon your mother in whatever gutter saw you sired! You've been chattel since you came into the world drenched in common blood!"

The War Medic looks like a cool job. Thematically its abilities are cohesive. I prefer it to your last iteration of the Berserker.

The one ability I'm not sure fits is Blast Wave. Doc's Code also might be a little OP (although if it's done in the same way as the Raptor's Bulwark, the unit would still be vulnerable to status effects).

I have the draws an enemy closer function in my mod, and it tends to break a lot of the boss fights especially the ones that aren't supposed to be able to move, so you should try to test that out extensively, and it's good to see you back at it again.

The concept of pulling enemies towards you sounded like an awesome idea on paper, but in the game since Bosses are considered enemies they count towards this and "Draws an enemy closer" doesn't have any kind of resistance similar to Knockback, the only reason why i'm suggesting not to do this is simply because you have to purposely do this action against a boss, and as a "Player" we get curious if a certain action can do this to said enemy, which is also the reason why Knockback doesn't work on Bosses cause they're primarily placed in a spot where they can't be knocked back.

Here's some screenshot proof that the user Stormlag has given me just to show you as an example:

I did went ahead and do this as well to see if it was actually doing that, which it did and you can also target them in the new spot as well, so i'm currently changing that and other stuff for my mod as well.

I'm absolutely delighted to see that you're continuing work on this hack. When I first stumbled onto this site a few months back, I played the 0.7 release of this and was blown away by the creativity on display, which inspired me to start work on my own hack using FFTA2 GG as a rom base due to how much I loved the new jobs you've implemented. Three months later I have a 30 page and counting design doc written for my hack (I won't be releasing it publicly so don't worry about me stealing your work!)

Now that you're back, I'd love to give you my feedback on the hack from what I've played:

Hume:

Soldier: Still a fairly uninteresting job, but much more practical thanks to the changes to the break skills. MP Gift doesn't really fit the skillset thematically, but it is very practical so I can't complain

Black Mage: The damage buffs to their spells are very welcome, and I love that the different elements have different quirks to make the job feel more varied. That being said, BM suffers from a lack of variety overall; realistically they only have three spells, since the upgrades are exactly the same with increased damage. I would recommend removing one tier of spells and replacing them with utility spells; for example, in my hack, I made the tier 1 spells moderate damage in a small AoE, the tier 3 spells heavy damage to a single target, and replaced the tier 2 spells with Toad, an MP drain spell and a spell that randomly teleports IN a small AoE to break up enemy formations. This makes every mastered skill feel like an actual addition, rather than a slight numbers tweak to the stuff you already have.

White Mage: Not much to say here, the new spells are greatly appreciated and practical. Again, I would replace one tier of Cure with something else, we really don't need 3 separate healing spells.

Thief: Steal HP and MP are great, and make the class much better, but I don't see much use in stealing in this game. I mean, stealing accessories is useful for things like ninja tabi and orbs of minwu, but does anyone honestly care about stealing level 1 or 2 loot that you'll be drowning in by 10 hours in? Likewise, mug gil becomes 100% irrelevant a few hours in, so why not have something like steal evasion (reduce enemy evasion to 0, increase user's evasion on hit) or steal resilience (same concept as the last)? Those would actually remain useful throughout the game.

Archer: Not the flashiest job, but effective at what it's meant for. I especially love cover fire, as it allows them to actually have a solid damage output in addition to their debuffs.

Paladin: Not substantially different from vanilla, but remains an effective tank, and some of the slightly revised skills are better than vanilla like taunt and holy strike

Fighter: Grapple is a brilliant skill, and makes the job feel more worthwhile. I'd recommend changing Air Blast to something different as well, to really capitalize on the two unique skills they have.

Samurai: I don't have much to add here aside from what others have said, that the skills need to be made physical instead of magickal, and maybe have some more varied AoEs than just surrounding tiles.

Ninja: I like the FFT Geomancer feel the skills have, combined with the raw damage output of dual wield they make an effective hybrid of damaging and debuffing units. As unique as the skill is though, why is Throw still in the skill set? I mean, does anyone ever actually use it? You either waste a valuable item for one powerful attack or use a crappy item for an underwhelming attack. In sure you could think up a better replacement.

Necromancer: Fantastic job against undead but as others have mentioned, there's not much reason to use them for 85+% of the game. I got around this in my hack by giving their skills two separate effects; one powerful effect that only hits undead, and another weaker but still useful effect that only hits non undead. That way the necro keeps their role as anti-undead specialist while still being fairly useful in other battles.

Blue Mage: Not much to say, still as awesome a support job as ever.

Hunter: Reminds me a lot of the necromancer in that they're a specialist job against monsters. Thankfully they don't suffer the same lack of usefulness against human opponents, so a great ranged job overall.

Seer: About the same as vanilla, glad to see magick frenzy only works on their spells for balance's sake.

Warrior: Almost the same as Soldiers, although Greased Lightning and Body Slam could use more interesting replacements.

Monk: Definitely a no frills job, but easily one of the most reliable backup skillsets in the game so no complaints here.

Dragoon: I would recommend giving the breath abilities different AoEs to make them feel different, and giving Jump a different effect. It's just not worth taking a 40-50% chance at double damage when you could just hit them twice normally. If anything I would give it normal damage and accuracy, but gives the user attack+ and critical+ on hit. Also, I feel that Dragoons should be given a higher inherent jump stay to reflect their gimmick, maybe 6 or even 8.

Myrmidon: Well...I hate to be negative, but this is easily the worst new job in the hack. Even if you did edit enemy formations to give them better gear, equipment breaking just wouldn't make that much of a difference in the battle aside from maybe weapon breaking. And why do there need to be four separate skills for breaking instead of consolidating them into one or two and having more varied skills in their place? Not only are breaking skills not practical, they're so, so BORING. I'd honestly scrap the whole job and replace it with a new concept that maybe keeps 1 or 2 skills related to gear breaking.

Gladiator: Not much you can do here sadly due to their shared skills, but I would recommend changing Ultima Blade to something else. I went with 1x physical damage to all enemies in my hack, as the other few 'all enemies' attacks were magick based, so that gave Gladiator something unique.

Oracle: Like others have said, at least a couple of the debuff skills should do damage, but a solid job all things considered. I like the idea of a debuff class that can still hit things hard and has a high evasion.

Bishop: I like the changes to pilfer and Aero, I don't know what else could really be done with the job.

Templar: Works very well as an anti mage hybrid unit, much more effective here than in vanilla now that MP damage actually matters.

Cannoneer: Desperately needs an overhaul and new job concept, one of the most boring and forgettable jobs in the game. Maybe make its skills do different types of magickal damage, as all other ranged units in the game do physical damage. That would at least make it feel unique and special.

Trickster: One of my favorite jobs in vanilla, not much changed here and not much needed to. Extremely versatile, capable of long range damage and close range debuffs, can't complain.

Nu Mou:

Time Mage: About the same as they always were, very useful. Demi and Comet are very welcome additions to make them more versatile, and their inherent teleport movement is a very nice touch.

Druid: Hands down my favorite new job you've created. Geomancers in vanilla were useless since they only had access to 2 or 3 skills in any given battle, while beastmasters in vanilla were the definition of wasted potential because of their 21 redundant skills. You took the worst aspects of two of the worst jobs and made something great out of them, A+ stuff all around.

Alchemist: Very similar to vanilla, but its always been a solid jack of all trades mage skillset so don't fix what ain't broken. Love the large AoE on Protometeor and Poison as well. Transmute should be changed to something new though, it's an entirely useless gimmick no one would ever use.

Daemon: Another brilliant re-use of a terrible mechanic from vanilla (flintlock prime). I also love that you've taken the skill set from Altima, as it's always fun to be able to use overpowered boss skills as the player in any RPG.

Sage: One of my favorite jobs in vanilla, no real reason to change things here. I do like the change to Gigaflare as one of the few target all enemies spells left in the hack.

Scholar: Very underappreciated job based on what others are saying. Having a dedicated buffing unit can have a major impact on the battle, and it does its job very well. Honestly, I hate that you got rid of teleport and vigilance for faith and brave, the originals were much more creative and practical. Maybe if faith and brave had a secondary effect they would be worth it but as it is now they remain completely unused by me and feel like a waste of a turn.

Moogle:

Animist: No comment as they don't seem to have been changed much if at all from vanilla.

Moogle Hero: I love how they're almost reverse paladins that focus on magick over blade. Their skillset is fun to use and had a surprising amount of utility.

Fusiler: Basically a worse version of vanilla fusilers without their overpowered vanilla skills, not worth using imo. I'd suggest them being replaced with a new job concept.

Corsair: Very fun gimmick, I love the dualcasting ability, even ignoring using it for black or time magick. Being able to give a unit two random buffs or debuffs in one turn is a fun way to do a luck based job, and coin toss is much less frustrating than the tinker ever was.

Orator: As your primary job, very bland, but makes for an excellent backup skillset to support a more interesting job. Still leagues better than tinker, so I'm happy with it, not all jobs need to be the...

Engineer: Such an awesome concept, and a fantastic execution besides. Every skill feels useful, and you picked the right animations to make them a delight to use.

Chocobo Knight: Still as useless as ever, but it's not like you had much to work with here. At least you were able to make them the designated stay optimization job, so they at least have SOME purpose now.

Viera:

Fencer: THE definition of a meh job. Better than vanilla sure, but...that's about it. I can't say it's a BAD job, but by god is its skillset dryer and blander than last year's fruitcake. I like the focus on nullifying reaction abilities, but there just aren't any skills that stand out and make me go 'damn, I really want this class on my team!' like most of the others. The only skill that is the least bit interesting, Retreat, doesn't even work properly. No matter how many times I use it, my fencer refuses to teleport away, so you might want to look into why that is. I looked it up in the ability editor and it seems like it should work, so I don't know what's wrong with it.

Green Mage: Awkward and borderline useless in vanilla (sleep and tranq aside), and even worse here due to the lack of sleep. One of the jobs that needs an overhaul, if you're going to have a job focused around buffs and debuffs, it should have a better choice of both. I mean, oil? Really? And why bother with protect and shell when white mages, bishops AND scholars can give those out with one skill? I know GM give them in a large AoE, but still nothing worthwhile. Why not a skill that gives evasion+ in a small AoE or a skill that reduces resilience in an AoE? Way more practical if you ask me.

Occultist: One of the best new jobs imo. I never would have thought that blood magick would work in FFTA2's engine. Possess is incredible, although I feel it shouldn't be free, it should cost either 10 or 20% max HP for how potent it is. The other skills are fun as well, but I feel there are already too many 'sacrifice user to revive teammate' skills in the hack, so Offering should be something else.

Red Mage: Still very useful, but not overpowered anymore; not much else you could have done due to spell dependencies.

Summoner: The damaging spells are fine, but the other spells are boring and could use some new effects. Maybe make one random debuff 1 in a large AoE, or certain stats down in the AoE.

Kunoichi: Fantastic idea for a job, I love high risk, high reward classes in games. The skillset is exactly what it needs to be, and in practical terms is very similar to its vanilla counterpart just more fun to use.

Sniper: Solid job, nothing too exciting but I love Eagle Shot. I'm not a fan of the spike trap skill for reasons I'll explain in the Ranger section, however.

Spellblade: Great revision of the original, only suggestion I would give is to make more of the skills cost MP, as she is a SPELLblade after all.

Seeq:

Berserker: nothing to say, however I definitely like the idea of the War Medic. I especially like the idea of Rescue, as I've been toying with the idea of a teamwork oriented use for the draw in effect myself.

Ranger: Half the ranger's skills I think are great. The trap skills I hate though, although it's the same issue in vanilla. The problem with traps in this game is that the AI will almost never step on them unless you deliberately put one behind you and turn your back to the enemy. Some might call this strategy, I call it an exploit; it doesn't feel organic at all as a human opponent would never fall for this, and feels like you're cheating the system instead of using strategy. It doesn't help that only the needle trap and charm trap are worth using. I'd much prefer four skills that emphasize thr survival aspect of the ranger.

Reaver: Easily the best seeq job, they really nail the dark knight feel. The only suggestion I'd make is to make dawn and duskblade holy and dark elemental, it seems strange that they're non elemental given their names.

Viking: You already know how I feel about stealing skills, so I'll cut to the chase and say that the standing in water restriction needs to be removed from Tsunami as only a tiny number of maps even have water, making it useless otherwise.

Gria:

Vartan: Arguably the best of the hybrid jobs in the hack, has a great balance of magick and melee. If you'd told me that a job with both magick frenzy AND dualcast could be fun without being OP I wouldn't believe it, but I think you've pulled it off.

Ravager: Didn't seem any different from vanilla so I didn't try it out, I do like the idea for the Ravager you posted several pages back about attacks that drain the enemy's stats.

Gourmand: A completely ridiculous concept for a class, but I feel like it fits the game's silly time perfectly. Cooking is one of the most interesting skills in the hack, and its other skills are fun to use as well. No complaints, great job on this one.

Special Jobs:

Dancer and Bard: I love how you made them similar to their FFT counterparts, however I think they might be a bit overpowered. Just a bit mind, and mostly the dancer, as any job that can give all enemies a debuff is a force to be reckoned with. I hesistate to suggest that you nerf them however, since I feel that unique jobs SHOULD be slightly overpowered to make up for the fact that you can't boot their users from their clan so...I guess keep them as is.

Monsters:

I've seen several people in the thread complain that the monsters are too hard in the early game due both to their high stats and the fact that monsters have access to all of their skills even in the beginning when your units have almost none. After a lot of deliberation, I believe I've come to a two pronged solution.

First, I would make the monsters have very very low BASE stats, but have high stat GROWTHS to compensate. This will ensure they will be manageable in the early game while remaining a challenge in the late game once their stats have skyrocketed.

Second, I would make almost all monster skills cost MP to use. This would mean they either wouldn't be able to use their more powerful skills on early game players at all or only once or twice per battle, as opposed to say, the lamia in the mystery of the well quest that will without fail spam Night every single turn making the mission nigh unwinnable. At higher levels they would have plenty of MP to use their powerful skills on your powerful units, so I feel the balance would be retained. Besides, why should monsters have access to insanely powerful skills for free, when the player has to constantly worry about MP management?

Sorry for the giant wall of text, I just wanted to make sure I covered everything. Looking forward to the next release of GG, and I hope you don't get burnt out by the long process its been so far!

Hey guys, thanks for your responses! I'll (hopefully) address everything in this post, so if I miss something, feel free to slap me with a trout and call me on it, haha.

@Chocolatemoose:

Yeah, I wasn't feeling that previous form of Berserker either. It felt very non-organic, and I want my jobs to feel organic and smooth, even if they end up being a little unbalanced (since that can always be fixed later). War Medic should feel far more natural and mesh well with other units, hopefully giving Seeq a little more love. Doc's Code would indeed work similarly to Bulwark, and Blast Wave is kind of a filler skill for now. I ultimately want them to have an AoE skill that can knock multiple units away so that they can get closer to their allies.

On the topic of Seeq, I'm trying to come up with a new job to replace them. The tricky part is that I only have four skills to work with, since Thunder/Thundara/Thundaga/War Cry are being used by other jobs. My current thought was a Red Mage-like job, using both Thunder and Water magicks, while being able to hit hard with their axes. I haven't settled on a concept yet though, and Viking is an interesting enough job to warrant having a truly fleshed-out concept.

@Zeke:

Terrible as I know this may sound, I'm aware that it may cause a glitch, but frankly, it's a cool enough effect that I don't mind. There are bound to be some smaller issues given how much I'm changing everything, and it's not game breaking, so I'm willing to tolerate it.

@Baron Samedi:

I'm glad that I was able to inspire you! I'm eager to see your finished work, and please, if you see an idea you like feel free to use it! As a community (especially one as small as A2's modding scene), it's important that we share and work off of each others' work. That's how improvement happens!

Allow me to address each of your points individually, and then I'll give everyone an update on where things fall idea wise as of right now.

Solder: Soldiers aren't meant to be particularly interesting, since they're much akin to FFT's Squire and Knight jobs. MP Gift was mostly designed as a way to help mages early-game and for non-mage jobs with their MP woes.

Black Mage: I've been playing a lot of FFXIV lately, which is where a lot of my inspiration has come from. I agree that the Black Mage's spells all feel very same-y, and I've been wanting to change them up for a while now. Here's where the challenge stands: I still want FFTA2 GG to feel like a FF game. Removing -ra and -ga spells feels counter to that. I think what may end up happening with Black Mage is that -ra and -ga spells remain, but have slightly different effects. For example, Blizzara might deal damage to a single target with a chance of Immobilizing it. Or Fira might deal damage in a small area with a chance to inflict Oil. Something like that. The other thing to keep in mind is that many monsters use -ra and -ga spells, meaning I have to keep their styles in mind as well (namely for Flans). That's why Black Mage is a little tricky to work with.

White Mage: Much like with the Black Mage, I agree (though I'd argue White Mage doesn't suffer quite as much for it). If Cure/Cura/Curaga did change, I'd probably make a normal healing AoE spell, a large AoE, small healing spell, and a single target large healing spell that bestowed Regen. Still, that would be a later update.

Thief: Thief has been a job I've been making one rehaul to after another throughout the years it feels like. I agree that some of their skills are somewhat boring, and I like the Steal Evasion idea. Realistically, I would likely keep Mug (since it basically replaces Attack- it's free, does the same thing as Attack, and steals Gil in addition to the damage), Change Loot I to Steal Evasion (or some semblance thereof), and turn Loot II into something like Steal Speed. The reason I hesitate on that though is because they're still Thieves- stealing things is their gig. Granted, it is canon. In Revenant Wings, Vaan could steal enemy stats.

Fighter: Please see below. I'm planning a few changes with Fighter, and Air Blast is chief among those changes.

Samurai: Samurai has always been meant to be a close-and-personal job, so I'm mostly fine with their skill ranges at the moment. As for damage output, I agree that it's been something that has been very tricky to get just right. I think what may end up happening is that they'll either deal physical damage (which might be the best option, since it'll give people some much needed physical abilities), or it'll continue dealing magical damage, but will ignore the enemy's Resistance. I haven't decided which I quite prefer yet, so that may need some experimenting.

Ninja: Ninja may actually be getting a complete rehaul soon, see below. That being said, Throw will almost always be a guaranteed keep on Ninja, mostly to reference FFT. Maybe if I play around with it enough I can make Grenades into Throw-only weapons.

Necromancer: I can definitely see where people are coming from with the criticism of Necromancer. Fun fact- the initial idea with Necromancer was almost exactly what you described. Potent effects on Undead units, a slightly lesser effect on living units. The challenge is that I simply don't have description line space enough to inform the player of what those secondary effects would be. Something I learned from FFTA GG is that correct descriptions are paramount, and I don't want to sacrifice that. That being said, 4/8 of the skills can be used in any fight, regardless of if there's Undead or not. I would argue that this is just a case of using it when Undead are around and perhaps not using it when there aren't, but Tainted Love and Brainrot are pretty useful all around.

Warrior: Body Slam will likely remain, but I'm planning on possibly retooling Greased Lightning, please see below for more details.

Dragoons: Ah, Dragoons. FFTA/A2 hasn't been kind to you. Dragoons have been on my to-do list for years, but I literally haven't been able to come up with something that'll do them justice. Jump (their stat and the skill) will likely be buffed, with Jump having increased range (but dealing less damage). Each of the Breath attacks will have a different effect, etc. Please see below for more details!

Myrmidon: It's okay! I completely agree! Myrmidon is on the list to be completely revamped. I realized I got a little carried away with the breaking abilities and I instead want to make the Myrmidon into a new job, which will focus on the use of Shields for defense and offense. Please see below for more details! (My apologies that I keep on saying that, but Bangaa are getting a desperately needed overhaul, haha.)

Gladiator: Ultima Blade is likely going to become Llednar's Alpha, which will deal heavy damage to an adjacent target, but we'll see. There were going to be some other small changes to their skills, such as making their three elemental abilities become physical skills that also buff the user- effectively making them stronger the more blood they draw from the target.

Oracle: Oracles may be getting a Future Sight-like attack (think Pokemon- the user attacks, and the damage hits the target a little later- Cannoneers have this right now, but this would be a magical/AoE variant), but I would need to test it first.

Bishop: Bishops are going to be slightly retooled as well. Break will be becoming a powerful AoE Earth spell with a chance to inflict Immobilize (to give them something later on with Holy as well as a rare Earth option), and Pilfer will likely become Renew, to fully restore a single target's HP. This would give them a slightly better magical skillset to pair with Oracle, Templar, or Trickster.

Templars: Templars are also getting a few new tricks (geez, I didn't realize until now how many Bangaa changes were coming down the pipeline). Namely, they're going to be better at protecting themselves against magicks, will have some bloat cut (I'm looking at you, Rasp and Soul Sphere), and just become a little more interesting.

Cannoneer: I respectfully disagree with you about Cannoneer. As for there being no real magical ranged jobs, just about any mage in the world has ranged magical options, haha. I like their gimmicks, and I think Vanilla A2 did a pretty cool job with them.

Alchemist/Sage: I'm coupling these two together because, frankly, I hate them both. I don't hate their jobs necessarily, but I hate how they're basically two halves of one whole. Ideally, Sage should be the ultimate magic job, which is why they have Ultima. But then you have Alchemist, with Item innate (which I wholeheartedly agree with), who can use Flare, Meteor, etc. Those kinds of high-end spells should be better suited to Sages. The only reason Transmute has stuck around as long as it has is because I like the concept, and it's one of the few things that make Alchemists feel like Alchemists. I'm admittedly not sure what to do about them, but it's been vexing me for some time.

Scholar: I liked Vigilance and Teleport as well, but sadly, they broke the game in one way or another. Bravery and Faith are Ivalice staples though, and are great to use if you have nothing else to do (namely at the start of battle).

Animst: Oh boy, Animist. Another job that's been on the chopping block for some time. See below (again, lol).

Fusilier: With the changes to Myrmidon, I think I like where Fusilier stands right now. I promise it'll be more worth it when I can edit enemy formations!

Corsair: So, stupid me forgot to give them the ability to use Guns. That'll be changing next update.

Chocobo Knight: This will probably be revamped, so each Chocobo Knight will be far more specialized based on the Chocobo being ridden. Like you said, not too much to be done about this, but I'll certainly tinker with it.

Fencer: Fencers are getting a minor buff next update, with Shadowstick dealing damage with a chance of Slow. I'll have to look into Retreat though. It's been a minute, but I swear that worked for me when I was testing it.

Green Mage: Green Mages are going to be getting a buff, but if anything it'll be more of a stat buff. The struggle is that literally all of their skills are also used by other things, so changing them too much becomes chaotic. They'll likely end up having a higher ATK and DEF to make them more battlemage-y (is that a word?) and allow them to better enter the front lines and smash skulls.

Occultist: Another fun fact- Possess was originally supposed to consume 20% of the user's HP to control a target. Due to how the game uses Control, it ignores any other effects tied to a skill, so Possess has to be free by nature of it being Control. As for Offering, it's on my to-buff list. It'll likely end up costing a percentage of maximum HP instead of all HP.

Summoner: Summons are boring, but effective. You won't find any large AoE source of Regen or Reflect, or healing and debuff removing at the same time. I'm pretty happy with them how they are... and if you want flashy summon effects, I'd advise seeing what I have planned below.

Spellblade: No need to worry, more MP costs are being added to Spellblade, so that's already taken care of!

Ranger: Fun fact time (yet again). I originally wanted Rangers to be able to set traps in an AoE. Unfortunately (likely due to memory limits), the game only allows you to set one at a time. Truthfully, I'm enamored with Traps. The fact that you could set them in A2 (unlike FFT), blew me away when I was younger. I increased their Range in a prior update to allow you to set them at more suitable chokepoints, but I agree that they're still somewhat underwhelming. That said, they'll be staying until I can find some way to upgrade them.

Reaver: Dawnblade will probably become Shadowblade, since that's what it was in FFT: WotL. I made this job ages ago, so I must not have noticed it. They'll both be becoming Dark Elemental. Not sure how I missed that all this time, haha.

Viking: Ugh, Viking. Please see above. Tsunami is definitely getting a buff of some sort though, if it lasts.

Ravager: Ravagers actually were changed, in a way similar to the Daemon. Ravagers require the user to be Prime'd, but for them to be afflicted with Prime, they need to wait three turns and survive that long. If they do, they become Prime'd and have access to powerful physical blows. Unlike Daemon however, the Prime buff doesn't wear off upon using an attack. Therefore, they're mighty glaciers. Slow and powerful, but they can be struck down easily, and they have to re-Prime upon being revived.

Dancer: Dancer will likely be nerfed ever so slightly, but it's not a huge mark on my to-do list yet.

Monsters: I like your idea in regards to this, and I'd be interested in crunching numbers with you. Numbers (MP in particular) is a tough spot of mine, so any help would be appreciated!

@Everyone:

Okay, so I've been working diligently, taking a magnifying glass to every single job and seeing what needs tweaked and what can stay. Here's what I came up with. Thoughts are of course always welcome.

Soldier:-Rend MP would deal full MP damage to the target as well as HP damage. Previously, it only did 25% of that damage as MP.

Thief:-Steal Gil will likely be renamed Mug, for clarity's sake.-Loot will possibly become Steal SPD, which inflicts Slow on an adjacent target and bestows Haste on the user.-Loot II will possibly become Steal EVD, which inflicts Evasion Down on an adjacent target and bestows Evasion Up on the user.

Archer:-Leg Shot will deal full weapon damage. Previously, it only did 50% weapon damage. If the damage lands, it will also have a 100% chance of Rooting the target for a single turn.-Blackout will deal full weapon damage. Previously, it only did 50% weapon damage.

Paladin:-Parley is now Ward, which grants Invincibility and Astra to the user.-Saint Cross now deals damage and Blinds enemies around the user.-War Cry now inflicts Slow and Attack Down on surrounding enemies.

Fighter:-Air Blast is now Reckoning, which debuffs the user and then deals damage based on the amount of debuffs the user has been afflicted with.

Samurai:-Iaido abilities will now either deal physical damage, or will continue doing magical damage, but will ignore Resistance (undecided as of yet.)

Ninja:-Ninja will be totally rehauled, focusing on increasing its Speed while nailing distant enemies with elemental magical effects until it gets close enough to kill.1) Throw- same as Vanilla.2) Huton- Bestows Haste on the user with a small chance to Quicken it.3) Katon- Deals Fire damage in a small AoE with limited range, has a chance to inflict Oil.4) Hyoton- Deals Ice damage to a single target and Roots it.5) Raiton- Deals heavy Thunder damage to a single target.6) Doton- Inflicts Blind and Poison to surrounding units with perfect accuracy.7) Suiton- Deals Water damage to a single target and bestows Vanish on the user.8) Fuuma- Deals 50% weapon damage to a distant target.

Hunter:-Drill Shot now deals Defense-ignoring physical damage in a line in front of the user.

Warrior:-Greased Lightning is now Omnislash, which deals two weapon strikes to a single target within range.-Lifetap is now Mangle, which deals weapon damage to a single target with a chance to inflict Speed Down.

Dragoon:-Jump now has 6 Range and deals 50% weapon damage with normal accuracy, no longer requires a Spear to use.-Wyrmtamer is now Reis Wind, which bestows the user with Regen and Move Up.-Fire Breath now has a chance to inflict Defense Down.-Ice Breath now has a chance to inflict Immobilize.-Thunder Breath now has a chance to inflict Slow.-Bangaa Cry now knocks the targets back and inflicts Rooted rather than inflicting Defense Down.

Myrmidon:-Myrmidon is now Warden, a job that focuses on balancing offense and defense with Shields, whose skills require a Shield to be used. I haven't decided on a skillset just yet, and I'd need to play around with their arsenal since they can currently only use two-handed weapons, but the basic idea is that they use Shields in an offensive capability, attacking and then immediately assuming a defensive stance.

Gladiator:-Fire Soul is now Bloodlust, which deals damage to an adjacent enemy and bestows Focus on the user.-Thunder Assault is now Rip and Tear, which deals damage to an adjacent enemy and bestows Attack Up on the user.-Blizzard Tackle is now Juggulate, which deals damage to an adjacent enemy and bestows Critical Up on the user.-Ultima Sword is now Omega, which deals 2x damage to an adjacent target.

Oracle:-Hex now deals Dark damage and inflicts Resilience Down.-Lubrication is now Omniscence, which deals magical damage to units in a small area next turn.

Bishop:-Break now deals heavy Earth damage in a small AoE with a chance to inflict Immobilize.-Pilfer is now Renew, which fully restores the target's HP.

Templar:-Piercing Cry is now Crucible, which deals weapon damage to a target and removes all of its buffs.-Discipline is now Aegis, which bestows Reflect, Shell, Resistance Up, and Resilience Up on the user.-Soul Sphere is now Inquisition, which deals MP damage to surrounding units and inflicts Magick Down.-Lifebreak is now Judgement, which deals weapon damage to a target and inflicts Silence with perfect accuracy.

Trickster:-Mug is now Con, which attacks a target with a chance to delay its turn.

Animist:-Animist is now Evoker, which will use Summons similarly to Summoners, but their Summons will have dual effects depending on the targets. This functionality will need to be tested and I'll need to figure out descriptions, but basically, each Summon would have a different effect based on who's in the area when it's used. Each Summon would have a Light/Dark effect, based on if it hits an ally or the enemy. For example, Carbuncle may bestow Astra to allies caught in the AoE, whereas it may Dispel on enemies caught in the AoE.

Berserker:-Berserker is now War Medic, with the changes planned as outlined above.

Reaver:-Shadowblade is now Dark Elemental and consumes 18 MP.-Duskblade is now Dark Elemental.

So yeah, that's what's on the horizon at some point in the near future. Any suggestions and feedback are welcomed as always, and I'm glad to see people are still interested in this little weird patch of mine, haha.

EDIT:

For people wondering what I have in mind for monster/special unit skills, they're more or less the same, except for some choice changes. Adelle in particular is proving to be a struggle for me, but I think I might make her skillset very high-risk, high-reward. Possibly revolving around a rotation of Astra/Reraise and having her skills be massively potent, but killing her in the process (as a way of showing that she's not used to her Heritor powers quite yet), but I'm undecided yet.

Vaan:

Trophy Hunt: Deals weapon damage to the target and, if the attack kills the target, the user gains a piece of Lv. 4 Loot.Shadow Stalk: Bestows Vanish and Evasion Up on the user.Salvage: Disarms a trap adjacent to the user.Life of Crime: Damages an adjacent target with a chance to inflict Blind and Silence.Steal: Steals the target's items, Gil, or Loot.Swipe: Steals a large amount of Gil from the target.Razor's Edge: Bestows Accuracy Up and Critical Up on the user.Flee: Bestows Haste and Move Up on the user.

Penelo:

Mincing Minuet: Deals a small amount of damage to all enemies.Blade Dance: Attacks an adjacent enemy twice in one attack.Forbidden Dance: Inflicts either Poison, Immobilize, Silence, or Blind on all enemies.Slow Dance: Inflicts Slow on all enemies.Witch Hunt: Deals a small amount of MP damage to all enemies.Polka: Inflicts either Attack Down or Defense Down on all enemies.Heathen Frolic: Inflicts either Magick Down or Resistance Down on all enemies.Jitterbug: Drains HP from a single unit up to four tiles away.

Hurdy:

Requiem: Removes all fallen Undead units from battle and deals heavy damage to all remaining Undead.Hide: Bestows Vanish on the user.Angelsong: Restores a small amount of HP to all allies.Battle Chant: Bestows either Attack Up or Defense Up to all allies.Magickal Refrain: Bestows either Magick Up or Resistance Up to all allies.Nameless Song: Bestows either Protect, Shell, Reflect, or Regen to all allies.Magick Ballad: Restores a small amount of MP to all allies.Soul Etude: Removes most debuffs from all allies.

Adelle:

Wermut: Nesiaam: Lennart: Deals damage in a wide line in front of the user.Hilo:Elpe:Viola: Ljda:Adelaide: Bestows Quicken and Reraise to the user.

Al-Cid:

Escort: Bestows Cover on a female unit from anywhere on the field.Flourish: Deals damage to a single target, damage is increased with more female allies.Fawn: Bestows Regen and Astra on a female unit.Enchant: Bestows Attack Up and Magick Up on a female ally, and Charm on a female foe.Interrogate: Reveals a foe's carried loot as well as all traps on the field.Succor: Restores HP and removes some debuffs from the user.Impassion: Bestows Berserk, Critical Up, Haste, and Reraise on a female unit.Reckless Abandon: Damages a target and inflicts Speed Down.

Illua:

Abyssal Slash: Deals damage to units in a line and inflicts Defense Down, Resistance Down, and Resilience Down.Time Blade: Deals damage to an adjacent unit and inflicts Stop, Rooted, and Delay.Saber: Bestows Attack Up, Accuracy Up, Evasion Up, and Critical Up on the user.Dimensional Rift: Reduces the HP of units in a large AoE by 50% and may inflict Immobilize.Annul: Reduces the MP of a single target to 0.Sheol: Inflicts Slow and Speed Down on all enemies and Haste and Regen on all allies.Rebirth: Restores the user's HP by 25% and removes all debuffs.

Goblin:

Magick Hammer: Deals MP damage to a target equal to half of its maximum HP.Goblin Punch: Deals damage to an adjacent target equal to the user's lost HP.Mutilate: Deals 50% damage to an adjacent target and restores the user's HP equal to the damage dealt.

Faerie:

White Wind: Restores an ally's HP equal to the user's current HP.Angel Whisper: Restores an ally's HP and bestows Regen.Meteorite: Deals damage to a single target and inflicts Confuse.Shine: Deals Holy damage in a small AoE and inflicts Blind.Fey Mischief: Bestows Evasion Up to the user and adjacent allies.

Lamia:

Night: Inflicts Sleep in a small AoE.Poisonous Frog: Inflicts Poison and Frog on a single target.Kiss: Inflicts Charm and Resilience Down on men and Confuse and Resilience Down on women.Hand Slap: Damages an adjacent target and inflicts Delay and Slow.Twister: Deals Wind damage to units in a large AoE.Eternal Sleep: Inflicts Sleep and Stop on a single target.Eternal Oblivion: Damages a single target with a chance to inflict Addle.

Wolves:

Screech: Deals damage in a cone in front of the user with a chance to inflict Silence.Summon Pack: Summons allies to battle.Fangs: Deals damage to an adjacent target that ignores Defense and inflicts Poison.Tackle: Deals damage to a unit within three tiles and inflicts Rooted.Acrobatics: Deals damage to an adjacent target and bestows Haste on the user.Sonic Fangs: Deals damage to an adjacent target with a low chance to inflict Death.

Bunnies:

War Dance: Bestows Attack Up on the user and adjacent allies.Illude: Inflicts Charm on a single target.Go-Go Dance: Bestows Haste on the user and adjacent allies.Hip Attack: Deals unavoidable damage to an adjacent target and may inflict Charm.

Werewolves:

Roar: Removes all buffs from targets in a cone in front of the user.Howl: Bestows Attack Up and Critical Up on the user.Slug: Deals damage to an adjacent target that ignores Defense.Assault: Deals damage to an adjacent target with a chance to inflict Immobilize and bestows Focus on the user.

Antlions:

Sandstorm: Deals Earth damage in a small AoE around the user with a chance to inflict Blind.Gnaw: Deals damage to an adjacent target and heals the user for the damage dealt.Suffocate: Inflicts Delay and Disable on an adjacent target.Bile: Deals damage to a target within three tiles and inflicts Defense Down.Mucus: Deals damage to a target within three tiles and inflicts Slow.Saliva: Deals damage to a target within three tiles and inflicts Speed Down.Quicksand: Deals damage to a target within four tiles, draws it close, and may inflict Rooted.

Adamantoises:

Limit Glove: Deals damage to an adjacent target equal to lost HP.Matra Magick: Swaps a target's HP and MP.Headbutt: Deals damage to an adjacent target with a chance to inflict Addle.Sonic Spin: Deals damage to all adjacent targets with perfect accuracy.Rain of Stone: Deals Earth damage to units in a small AoE.Munch: Destroys the equipped weapon of an adjacent target. Resonate: Inflicts Disable on all units currently equipped with bladed weaponry.

Malboros:

Bad Breath: Inflicts Poison, Blind, and Silence in a cone in front of the user.Eerie Soundwave: Inflicts Resilience Down on units around the user.Goo: Inflicts Immobilize on a single unit.Malboro Song: Bestows Regen and Accuracy Up on the user.Putrid Breath: Inflicts Frog, Confuse, and Disable in a cone in front of the user.Purify: Removes all debuffs from the user.Honeyed Breath: Inflicts Charm in a cone in front of the user.Love Song: Restores HP and bestows Defense Up on the user.Cloying Breath: Inflicts Slow, Sleep, and Immobilize in a cone in front of the user.

Alraunes:

Horn Blow: Deals damage to an adjacent unit, knocks it back, and delays its turn.Horn Drill: Inflicts Death on an adjacent unit. Horn Shot: Deals damage to a unit within four tiles.Tomato Fang: Deals damage to an adjacent unit and inflicts Attack Down.Tomato Tackle: Deals damage to an adjacent target with a small chance to Quicken the user.Tomato Ketchup: Inflicts Blind and Berserk on a unit within three tiles.

Cockatrices:

Stone Breath: Deals damage in a cone in front of the user with a chance to inflict Petrify.Fluster: Bestows Attack Up and Resistance Up on the user.Scurry: Bestows Haste and Move Up on the user.Peck: Deals damage in a small line in front of the user with a chance to inflict Blind.Scatter: Bestows Evasion Up and Accuracy Up on the user.Wake-Up Call: Quickens an ally within six tiles.

Chocobos:

Choco Cure: Restores HP to units around the user with a chance to bestow Regen.Choco Esuna: Cures all debuffs from units around the user.Choco Ball: Deals damage to a unit within four tiles.Choco Meteor: Deals damage to units in a small AoE.Choco Beak: Deals damage to an adjacent unit, ignoring Defense.Choco Recharge: Restores the MP of an adjacent unit.Choco Guard: Bestows Defense Up and Resistance Up on adjacent units.Choco Barrier: Bestows Protect and Shell on adjacent units.

Flans:

Unction: Inflicts Oil on units in a large AoE.Slime: Inflicts Resistance Down and Magick Down on a target within four tiles.Acid: Inflicts two random debuffs on a target within four tiles.Mambo: Inflicts Berserk with perfect accuracy on surrounding enemies.Syphon: Drains MP from a target within four tiles.

Bombs:

Self-Destruct: Damages surrounding units equal to the user's lost HP, kills the user, and inflicts Oil on damaged units.Flame Attack: Deals Fire damage to a target within four tiles with a chance to inflict Oil.Spark: Deals Fire damage to surrounding units while also healing the user.

Zombies:

Miasma: Deals Dark damage to units in a small AoE, with a chance to Poison non-Undead units.Drain Touch: Deals damage to an adjacent unit and heals the user's HP equal to the damage dealt.

Ghosts:

Flash: Inflicts Blind on all units looking at the user.Sleep Touch: Deals damage to an adjacent unit with a chance to inflict Sleep.Silence Touch: Deals MP damage to an adjacent unit with a chance to inflict Silence.Wake the Dead: Summons allies to battle.

Deathscythes:

Ague: Inflicts Slow in a small AoE.Steal Thoughts: Deals damage to an adjacent unit and restores the unit's MP equal to the damage dealt, may inflict Addle.Deep Sleep: Inflicts Sleep and Slow on a single target.Shackle: Inflicts Immobilize and Disable on a single target.

Floating Eyes:

Vampire: Deals damage to a target within three tiles and heals the user for the damage dealt.Supersonic Wave: Deals damage to a target within three tiles with a chance to inflict Confuse.Death Dive: Deals damage to a target within three tiles equal to the user's lost HP.Fly: Bestows Evasion Up and Move Up on the user.

Ahrimans:

Roulette: Inflicts Death on a random ally or enemy.Glare: Inflicts Petrify with perfect accuracy on an adjacent unit looking at the user.Demonic Gaze: Deals HP and MP damage to a unit within four tiles that is looking at the user.Binding Circle: Inflicts Slow and Speed Down on a single target within four tiles.Dread: Deals damage to an adjacent target and inflicts Attack Down.Bewitching Glance: Draws in and inflicts Charm with perfect accuracy on a unit within four tiles looking at the user.

Tonberries:

Knife: Reduces an adjacent unit's HP by 90%.Karma: Deals damage to an adjacent unit equal to the target's number of kills multiplied by ten.Hide: Bestows Vanish on the user.Voodoo: Reduces an adjacent unit's MP to 0.Stalk: Chooses a target to attack next.

Dullahans:

Quake: Deals Earth damage to units in a large AoE.Bone Shatter: Deals damage to an adjacent unit with a chance to inflict Disable.Brute Strength: Bestows Attack Up and Focus on the user.Tri-Attack: Reduces the HP of an adjacent unit by 50% and inflicts Slow.Helmsplitter: Deals damage to an adjacent unit with a chance to destroy its equipped helmet.

Behemoths:

Heave: Deals damage to an adjacent unit with a chance to inflict Death.Stampede: Deals damage to units in a line in front of the user.Sunder: Deals damage to surrounding units with a chance to inflict Defense Down.

Dragons:

Fireball: Deals Fire damage to a unit within three tiles.Ice Orb: Deals Ice damage to a unit within three tiles.Lightning: Deals Thunder damage to a unit within three tiles.Expose Weakness: Inflicts Defense Down and Resistance Down on a unit within four tiles.Mighty Guard: Bestows Defense Up and Resistance Up on a unit within four tiles.Dragon Force: Bestows Attack Up and Magick Up on a unit within four tiles.Wyrmweave: Fully restores the HP of an HP Critical Dragon unit.Aeon: Bestows Quicken on an HP Critical Dragon unit.Wyrmheart: Bestows Reraise on an HP Critical Dragon unit.

Yowies:

Draw In: Draws in a target from up to six tiles away, damages it, and heals the user for the damage dealt.Stun Crush: Deals damage to surrounding units and inflicts Slow.Gravity Flux: Deals damage to all enemies with a chance to inflict Immobilize.

Rafflesias:

Seed: Summons allies to battle.Nectar Volley: Inflicts Poison, Slow, and Speed Down to units in a large AoE.Vine Lash: Deals damage to surrounding units with a chance to inflict Delay.Blinding Cloud: Deals damage to units around the user and inflicts Blind with perfect accuracy.Soporific Cloud: Deals damage to units around the user and inflicts Sleep.Refreshing Pollen: Bestows Regen on all allies.

Demon Walls:

Telega: Teleports an ally directly in front of the user and inflicts Immobilize with perfect accuracy.Repel: Deals tremendous damage to a unit in front of the user.Shining Darkness: Inflicts Petrify on a single target within six tiles.Gravija: Reduces the HP of units in a large AoE to 1.

Crushatrices:

Fortify: Bestows Defense Up, Resistance Up, and Resilience Up on the user.Beak: Deals damage to an adjacent target.Devour: Deals damage to units in a small AoE in front of the user.Territorial Marking: Deals damage to units in a small AoE and inflicts Defense Down.Piston Drop: Deals damage to all enemies.

Neukhia:

Grand Cross: Deals heavy damage to units surrounding Shining Stones and inflicts three random debuffs.Consumption: Deals heavy damage to units in a large AoE.White Hole: Deals damage to units in front of the user and inflicts Petrify.Syphonja: Reduces the MP of units in a large AoE to 0.Dispelja: Removes buffs from all enemies and inflicts Resistance Down and Resilience Down.Apocalypse: Inflicts Frog on units in a large AoE.Gigadust: Deals damage to all enemies.Catastrophe: Inflicts Attack Down, Magick Down, and Confuse in a large AoE.Punishing Ray: Deals heavy damage to a single unit within six tiles and inflicts Stop with perfect accuracy.Charge Ray: Charges Neukhia Wisp.Restoration Ray: Restores a large amount of HP to the Neukhia Core and bestows Defense Up, Resistance Up, and Reraise.Sanctify: Inverts the HP and MP of all enemies.Rewind: Activates the Shining Stones.

Weapons:

Primary Weapon: Reduces the HP of all units by 90%.Secondary Weapon: Deals tremendous damage to units in a large AoE.Beguile: Inflicts Charm and Speed Down on units in a large AoE.

Miscellaneous Enemies:

Dark: Deals light Dark damage to units in a large AoE and may inflict Blind.Darkra: Deals moderate Dark damage to units in a small AoE and may inflict Sleep.Darkga: Deals heavy Dark damage to a single target and within four tiles and may inflict Death.Invert: Swaps the HP and MP of a unit within three tiles.

Esper Quickenings:

Belias: Inflicts Oil on all foes with perfect accuracy.Mateus: Inflicts Rooted on all foes with perfect accuracy.Shemhazai: Fully restores the MP of all allies.Hashmal: Bestows Focus on all allies.Famfrit: Removes all debuffs from all allies and all buffs from all enemies.Adrammelech: Extends the buffs and debuffs of all units on the field.Cuchulainn: Inflicts Poison on all foes with perfect accuracy.Zalera: Inflicts Resilience Down on all foes with perfect accuracy.Chaos: Quickens all allies.Zeromus: Delays the turn of all foes with perfect accuracy.Exodus: Deals 25% HP and MP damage to all foes with perfect accuracy.Ultima: Fully restores the HP of all allies.Zodiark: Deals Dark damage to all foes with perfect accuracy.

« Last Edit: December 27, 2017, 01:55:09 AM by Eternal »

Modding version: PSX & WotL

Discord username: eternal248#1817

"You, no less human than we? Ha! Now there's a beastly thought. You've been less than we from the moment your baseborn father fell upon your mother in whatever gutter saw you sired! You've been chattel since you came into the world drenched in common blood!"

First off, I'd like to thank you for going to the trouble of reading through my wall of text and addressing my points individually. You make a good point in that you want the game to stay true to the series and feel like a FF game; I admit I was somewhat projecting my own goals and design philosophies onto my suggestions, which vary wildly from both the feel and series staples of the other FF games. I don't want to make this about my hack as this is your thread, so I'll spoiler my main design goals as not to distract from the focus of the thread, so feel free to skip over this if you're not interested.

My main idea for the hack is to be as experimental and creative as I possibly can and squeeze as many unique ideas as I can from the engine. This means overhauling every game system I can with my almost non-existent knowledge of hex editing. And I mean EVERY game system I can. My design goals in order from most important to least important:

1. Revise every. single. job. I've gone through each job in the game and either completely revamped them into a brand new concept (mind you, as I used GG as a base, this includes your brand new concepts like the necromancer and kunoichi as well for now) or given them a similar concept with at least a somewhat revised skill set. To this end, each and every job will be renamed to reflect the idea that they're all different from vanilla (minus the obvious impossibilities like chocobo knight, seer, red mage, fighter). I've done this in a variety of ways:

1a. New skills, and less redundant skills. As I mentioned for black mages, I hate how many outright redudndant skills exist in the game, so I've been replacing them whenever possible. Just last night I had the idea to overhaul BM a second time. Now instead of a small AoE tier 1 spell and powerful single target tier 3 spell per element with 3 utility spells replacing the tier 2 spells, I've replaced the two damaging spells for each element with more unique and fun spells. An example is thundaga's replacement, Lightningrod, which does heavy thunder damage in a large AoE around the caster at the cost of 0.5x lightning damage on self.

1b. Changing the inherent stats of jobs to achieve greater variety. Select jobs now have more varied move and jump stats to reflect their themes, and a couple have inherent float or teleport like what you did with the time mage. In addition, many jobs now have inherent resistances to certain elements that reflect their theme (e.g. viking taking 1/2 damage from thunder and water or vartan's absorbing wind). I feel this encourages greater strategic play by making the player really consider the elements of their skills instead of blindly throwing elemental effects around without care while also incentivizing the use of said jobs.

Another major change is the overhaul of the evasion system. I felt that one of the reasons people hate debuffs in A2 so much is because they are on average only 40-60% accurate, while you have a MINIMUM 85% chance to hit any job with a damaging skill (evasion gear excluded of course).

To this end, I've greatly increased the evasion curve, with the lowest evasion classes having a base 5% and the absolute highest one or two jobs capping at base 30%. This will nerf the extreme bias A2 has towards straight damage skills while indirectly buffing debuffs (that was fun to say, I'll admit). Of course, the classes with 20%+ inherent evasion also have lower resilience to compensate, meaning some classes will be more vulnerable to damage, with others being more vulnerable to debuffs. Evasion gear will have to be nerfed slightly to prevent ridiculous dodge builds, but I feel this change will make the game far more diverse in terms of strategy and approach.

I've also slightly tweaked the resilience curve, but not to as extreme a degree; values now range from 25% to 80% with a more diverse distribution than vanilla.

2. Make every job viable, not only as a secondary skillset, but as a primary. I feel many jobs in A2 suffer from 'white monk syndrome' i.e. having a useful skillset, but not one you'd ever use as your primary. I mean, white monks are great and all, but why would I ever use them as my primary job when master monk is better in every way and I can still use white monk's skills as a secondary? My goal is to give the player a reason to want to use every single job as their main, and really struggle to decide which of their two chosen skillsets should be their primary and which should be their secondary. This will be accomplished through the aforementioned overhauled inherent stats. Some jobs are appealing because of their move/jump values or inherent teleport; others are appealing due to their elemental resistances, and yet others for their evasion or resilience.

3. Come up with as many experimental and fun job concepts as possible. Given the amount of massive overhauls to inherent stats, I'm under no illusion that this hack will be perfectly balanced regardless of how much playtesting I do. I'll certainly try my hardest to make things balanced, but at the end of the day I'm aiming for fun jobs above all else. A small sampling of the ideas I have:

Fusiler -> Commando: the commando is based around the idea of being a one-moogle army that lugs around an arsenal of different guns into battle, and his skills are meant to simulate various types of guns. One skill is going to basically be a shotgun, doing heavy fire damage in a cone in front of the user to simulate the spread of a shotgun, while another is going to be a plasma rifle that does damage and reduces a target's defense and resistance on hit to simulate the plasma burning through their armor. Inspired by Doomguy's arsenal from the classic Doom games.

Blue Mage -> Mimic: the mimic is based around the concept that blue mages are basically just trying to copy what they see monsters do, but being only human they end up having spells with similar, but different effects to what the monsters use. An example would be Dragon Force giving the target regen and focus, or Night doing dark damage in a small AoE that drains HP. Again, the idea is that the skills they learn are thematically similar to the originals, but with a different effect.

Soldier -> Scout: One of two units in the hack with 5 base move (5 jump as well!). They are meant to be a hybrid of traditional melee tanks and fast but fragile thief/rogue type jobs. They're faster than tanks, but deal less damage and are more fragile. Their high move and jump reflect their emphasis on mobility and positioning, and their three unique skills all revolve around this including a backstab skill and a skill to increase their already high move when they hit their target. The break skills have also been removed from them and the warrior replacement, and instead replaced with skills that feel more appropriate for professional soldiers (rallying and supporting their troops, increasing their own defense, etc).

Whew. That was a mouthful, sorry for going on for so long about all that. Getting back on topic, you make a good point about necromancer needing to fit the ability descriptions, I never thought about that aspect of things.

I also like the idea of maybe giving BM spells a slight chance of debuffs akin to what you did for the Dark trio for deathscythes.

Upgraded traps would definitely make the Ranger's skills more worthwhile, sadly I don't know what you could really do within the constraints of the ability editor.

Huh, guess I'll have to check out ravagers after all, seems like an interesting use of the 3 turn doom timer!

I love the idea behind Reckoning for the fighter, how would you go about implementing it? Random debuff 1 or 2 on self, then damage the target based off how many debuffs the user has?

I don't think the samurai change would work, as I think I saw on a thread somewhere (maybe even this one, I don't remember) that the 'ignore defense' property only applies to defense and not resistance. Haven't tested it for myself, but if it DOES work on resistance the change could make for an interesting hybrid.

The ninja update looks fantastic and more varied, and better fits the reality of the assassins and hitmen that actual ninjas were.

Warrior and Dragoon are looking a lot more interesting now, can't complain. Does this mean that the new debuffs on the elemental breath skills will also be on dragon's versions of them? Would make them ever more formidable does that dragons really should be.

I like the idea of the Warden, seems much more eye catching and useful than the myrmidon, very glad to see this change.

The gladiator's new skills really feel like something a bloodthirsty arena combatant would use, much more appropriate than the elemental blades.

Templar's changes are welcome, while still remaining true to their anti mage theme, nice to see the fat get trimmed.

Regarding sage and alchemist, I agree that they would work better consolidated into one job focused around being the ubermage so to speak, but my question is twofold: what skills would you be keeping from both skillsets, and what would you replace the now empty second job with? Personally I would hope that scathe, bio, and protometeor would make the cut, as well as maybe omega and gigaflare, but at that point the job might be a bit redundant with all the non elemental damaging spells. Toad would be nice to keep as well.

Still not a fan of the green mage, but at least it should be useful in combat to complement its buffs and debuffs.

It's a shame to see that you can't give possess an HP cost due to engine limitations, but oh well. Offering seems more distinct from the other revive skills now, good stuff.

The evoker sounds awesome, but I'm not sure how it would be implemented in the engine. If you can pull it off, I'd be all for it!

Al-Cid's skillset is perfectly faithful to his vanilla concept, but seems far more useful. The only concern I have is that he will be almost useless if you only have one or two female units in a battle as only gria and viera would be affected by his skills, but then again you have adelle, penelo and frimelda to help fill up a batter's roster so I don't think he quite falls into the same trap as the necromancer thankfully.

I like how vaan is basically the ultimate self-buffing unit. Give him two or three turns to set up and he would be almost unstoppable.

Oh, and regarding my ideas for making the monsters more balanced in the early game, I'm out of town for the next couple days, but I'd be happy to start doing the math on possible stat growths when I get back home! Honestly, it was kind of a shower idea, the math might not work out, but fingers crossed! As for their new skills, I like what you've done with them and think they'll be more interesting to fight now. The boss mobs in particular look pretty terrifying and should make for some tense battles. This post is already long enough as is and it's very late here, so I'll save more point by point thoughts on monster skills for another post after I've gotten some sleep.

All that being said, rabidly looking forward to the next release whenever that may be and I'll be happy to playtest it and give more feedback! Keep up the good work.

EDIT:

I just now had a thought about buffing ranger traps. Since you wanted to let them set traps in an AoE, what if you gave the trap skills a quicken effect on self, that way you could set multiple traps in one 'turn'. You would have to give the skills a not insignificant MP cost as with any self quicken skill, but I can't think of any other way to directly buff traps.

-Reckoning, yeah. It would debuff the user twice and then inflict damage. It'd need some testing to see the order in which the effects would go off, but I think I could make it work, even if it means having to use it continually to do so.

-Sage would be the more varied spellcaster, since traditionally Sages have a wide array of spells, and they'd probably get Ultima. Alchemists would likely be more about statuses and item usage.

-As far as Rangers are concerned, I'm leery about anything Quicken, since the AI is weird about it. I think traps are going to just have to be something I play around with until I find something I like.

On a related topic, I brainstormed a Black Mage revamp while in bed this morning. Here's what I came up with:

-Fire magick is the most "reliable", focusing on damage and AoE attacks.-Ice magick is the most defensive, focusing on debilitating the enemy and making them unable to strike at the caster.-Thunder magick is the most focused on risk and reward, focusing on potentially dealing heavy damage, but with less control.-Tier 1 magick is the simplest, focusing solely on damage, with each element having its own gimmick still.-Tier 2 and 3 magick focuses more on tactical usage, with varying effects.

Fire: Deals minor Fire damage in a large AoE and removes Oil.Fira: Deals minor Fire damage in a small AoE and inflicts Oil.Firaga: Deals heavy Fire damage in a small AoE and disperses the targets away from each other and removes Oil.Blizzard: Deals Ice damage to units in a small AoE.Blizzara: Deals Ice damage to a single target and Roots it with perfect accuracy.Blizzaga: Deals heavy Ice damage to adjacent targets, knocks them back, and inflicts Immobilize with perfect accuracy.Thunder: Deals Thunder damage to a single target within six tiles.Thundara: Deals heavy Thunder damage to either allies or enemies in a large AoE.Thundaga: Deals minor Thunder damage from 0-4 times randomly onto a single target.

EDIT:

I think I also have a concept drawn up for the Defender/Myrmidon replacement. Rather than a Warden job based on Shields, it'd be a Judicer job based on Gabranth's skillset from FFXII/Dissidia, and would be an anti-physical unit, kinda like Templars but focusing on fending off physical units. Basically, it'd be a more offensive version of a Paladin, with less magickal ability than a Moogle Knight, with the ability to deal with physical units better than a Templar, and less offense compared to Gladiators.

Execution: Inflicts 999 damage on an adjacent HP Critical unit.Rupture: Deals physical damage to an adjacent unit and inflicts Poison, Disable, and Haste (simulating bleeding).Battle Cry: Bestows Critical Up and Defending on the user.Innocence: Deals damage to a unit within three linear tiles of the user with a chance to inflict Addle.Vortex: Deals physical damage to surrounding units with a chance to inflict Slow.Rage: Inflicts Berserk and Blind on an adjacent target.Taunt: Inflicts Berserk and Immobilize on an adjacent target.Guilt: Deals physical damage to units in a cone in front of the user with a chance to inflict Attack Down.

« Last Edit: December 28, 2017, 12:11:00 AM by Eternal »

Modding version: PSX & WotL

Discord username: eternal248#1817

"You, no less human than we? Ha! Now there's a beastly thought. You've been less than we from the moment your baseborn father fell upon your mother in whatever gutter saw you sired! You've been chattel since you came into the world drenched in common blood!"

Illua (not a monster but close enough): I'm absolutely dreading fighting Illua now (in a good way mind). Sheol could completely win the battle by itself, especially combined with dimensional rift. She seems like an actual boss now and not just a glorified special job you don't get.

Goblin: very straightforward, feels more interesting as an HP manipulation focused unit than the random hodgepodge of skills it used to have

Faeries: Fey mischief is a nice buff that will make them priority targets to get rid of before they make their whole team impossible to hit. I like the added debuff on meteorite to make it more than just 'do damage'; I dont quite get the logic behind it confusing targets, but I guess I'd be pretty confused too if someone dropped a meteor on my head.

Lamia: Night's new effect seems much more manageable and fair for the player now, I approve. Kiss is a nice gimmick, and the rest of its skills cement it as a solid debuff specialist unit.

Wolves: Very solid skillset all around. In glad you got rid of the elemental blow skills, those were beyond frustrating to deal with in early game missions when wolves could destroy your entire team from multiple tiles away.

Bunnies: As far as I know, the only difference here is hip attack being unavoidable and having a chance to charm. Probably for the best as they already excelled at trolling the player by hasting their team throughout the battle.

Werewolves: Very boring in vanilla, this set makes them the straighforward angry piles of meat they should have been from the beginning.

Antlions: Very well thought out skills that synergize well with each other. I can definitely see them comboing quicksand and suffocate or gnaw to completely cripple a unit for most of the battle.

Adamantoises: I still find resonate's target all AoE infuriating combined with perfect accuracy (assuming you kept its perfect accuracy from vanilla), I think it would be better as a large AoE surrounding the user or even a summoning AoE. Headbutt is nice thematically, as you would probably forget a lot of things after being smashed in the head by their iron hard skulls.

Malboros: THE definitive debuffing monster, absolutely terrifying to let get close to your units, and are effectively immune to debuffs themselves thanks to purify. They'll defintely be my priority target in any battle I face them in.

Alraunes: I feel like they have more skills in their set now than they used to, I seem to remember them only having around 3 skills. If I'm not misremembering that, how did you manage to give them new skill slots? I thought that was impossible in the engine. Regardless, their skills are cohesive and fun, and I especially like the pokemon tribute that is Horn Drill.

Cockatrices: I think the skillset makes them a lot more threatening, however I get nervous that they have access to both accuracy+ and petrify. That could prove to be very frustrating to deal with.

Chocobos: They already had solid skills, but nothing too flashy. This is a minor but welcome tweak to their set, and if the version of the hack I played is any indication all colors get access to the entire skillset instead of only a few skills, which was sorely needed.

Flans: acid and mambo give them more of a unique feel, and should go well with their black magick backup skills.

Bombs: Not much to say aside from the added oil chance on flame attack is a no brainer that should have been in vanilla imo.

Zombies: As good as a two skill set can be, not much room for experimentation here.

Ghosts: Flash should add a bit of depth to their fights as it forces the player to really consider each unit's facing in undead fights.

Deathscythes: Absolutely crippling debuffs make them as scary as they really should be, basically ghosts on steroids.

Floating Eyes: Combining their ability to fly with the ability to increase their move makes them very threatening. I find it strange that they don't have any skills based on eye contact, since they're literally eyes with wings.

Ahrimans: I'm glad they at least have eye contact skills, and they have their own niche as the monster equivalent of the soldier that drains your stats.

Tonberries: It's funny how one simple skill alteration can change these guys from nonthreatening to 'oh god oh god I'm going to die'. Giving tonberries the ability to go invisible almost guarantees they'll maim or kill at least one of your units before going down, which is a change I approve of considering how rare they are.

Dullahans: No idea what monster you're referring to here, presumably the headless? If so the helmsplitter skill is a nice touch, guess they get jealous. The other skills seem practical, but not really cohesive and don't seem to really fit into any theme.

Behemoths: Another straightforward beatstick of a monster, no problems here.

Dragons: I think the new skills focusing on buffing and fortifying fellow dragons when they're close to death are very cool and really play into the idea of dragons being some of the hardiest and fearsome monsters in almost any culture's folklore.

Yowies: Very focused skills that all contribute to the boss' longevity at the expense of the player, possibly the easiest boss monster, but it should be since its the first real boss fight of the game.

Rafflessia: I'm surprised how well the nature/plant themed skills translate to A2's gameplay, it makes me want to create a player job based around those themes.

Demon Wall: As devastating as gravija would be in any other fight, is there even a point to Demon Wall having it? Your units having 1 HP doesn't really matter in this fight since repel already does massive damage and I don't think the Demon Wall even has a standard attack outside of pushing your units off the map of you're too slow in killing it.

Crushatrice: Solid skills that turn the chicken into a giant wall of meat for you to slowly grind down, having a damage all enemies skill makes it much more of a threat than it would otherwise be.

Neukhia: Just as absolutely devastating as a final boss' skills should be. I'm actually surprised reraise even works on the core. I would have thought it would be scripted to start the ending cutscene immediately after death before reraise has a chance to kick in, just goes to show how flexible the A2 engine can be.

Weapons: very powerful skills, although I question the logic of how exactly a giant spider robot manages to charm your units.

Misc. Skills: Having instant death on Darkga seems very unfair to me, if it has such a potent effect it should only have 0.5x debuff accuracy at the absolute highest, if not 0.25x debuff accuracy.

Espers: I really like how varied their effects are now; that being said I'll never use them as a matter of personal preference. They always feel cheap and unfair to me as the AI is incapable of using them and gives the player an unfair advantage over them. Much in the same way I never use revive skills as the AI is literally incapable of reviving their teammates even if you edit all their skills to be teammate revival.

When you say the AI is weird about self quicken effects, what do you mean? I ask because I was planning on making Rush from the fighter and gladiator do 0.25x damage and quicken on self for a decent MP cost. Will the AI always prioritize self quicken skills over everything else or something?

The black mage overhaul is looking great. I especially like the idea of setting up the target with oil from fira, then comboing it with fire or firaga. It was clever to have fire and firaga remove oil on hit, as in real life if you light a something covered in oil on fire the fire burns more intensely for a few seconds before the oil is gone. Nice attention to detail.

I also agree that Sage should be more varied; when I think sages in the FF series I always think of FF3's sage that had access to all the best black and white magick but very limited spell charges to compensate for it. If Alchemists are about statuses, what would differentiate them from say, the orator or trickster? I know it would probably be impossible to have both in the same hack, but the only way to make them really feel like alchemists would be to give them an analogue to the Gourmand's cooking skill, where you consume items to give various effects. Although if I'm right and only one can be in the hack, I would much prefer the gourmand keep cooking as it's such a fun job and concept.

EDIT:

Just saw your edit with the Judicer, I like the idea of it being almost a hybrid of templar, paladin and moogle hero. I hope execution has a sufficiently awesome animation to go along with its ridiculous overkill.

-Faeries using Meteorite to confuse you is yeah, a giant rock slams into your head, that's bound to cause some confusion, haha. Plus it plays into their role of being annoying pranksters.

-Adamantoises having Resonate is something that'll eventually change. I get why it's there thematically, but I also don't like it. I feel like there's more interesting things that can be given to it, but I haven't really given much thought to it.

-Alraunes actually had that many skills from the beginning! You just didn't see the Tomato abilities a lot, because they became rarer (and were far easier to kill) late-game.

-If Vaan is a human self-buffer, Cockatrices are the monster version. Cockatrices, thematically, are all about teamwork and self-buffing to tear your party apart if allowed to have enough time to do so. Wake-Up Call allows them to play well with each other even when they're not buffing.

-I wanted Floating Eyes to be more about speed and range, as opposed to statuses and trickery. They're basically how Bats were in FFXII, so I wanted to represent that in the changes as well.

-Dullahans are Headless, yes. The biggest difference between Werewolves, Dullahans, and Behemoths is that Werewolves are more about setting up and buffing themselves, whereas Dullahans are all about crippling the target, and Behemoths are just like, nope, and focus on outright killing the target. It's hard making them all feel unique (though stat changes will help, and Werewolves can use some Light Armor), but they were pretty similar to begin with.

-Gravija exists because other jobs besides Demon Wall uses it (namely the final boss), but yeah, in the Demon Wall fight it doesn't really matter.

-As far as Neukhia is concerned, I'm not sure if it'll work! If not, it'll do Regen instead.

-Anything inflicting Death would have a far less accurate chance than a normal debuff, so don't worry about that feeling too cheap.

-Espers were inspired by fighting game assists, of all things. You summon them and they have a potentially tide-turning effect, but only if used correctly. I designed them so that they'd each have a niche use depending on your situation, so you may want to try them out! As for reviving units, I want to play around with that a bit. I feel like it has to somehow be possible, but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't. That'll be something I play with when I can edit formations.

-As far as Quicken is concerned, the AI will spam Quicken like no tomorrow because it's such a good effect. It's why I'm super careful when distributing it.

-Once upon a time, I was going to give Alchemist a skillset like what the Gourmand has now, but I liked the idea of a Gourmand that could cook things more overall. If I were to revamp Alchemist, I'd have them themed around the classical elements of Earth, Wind, Fire, and Air while focusing on debuffs. Sages would have a variety of magicks, with higher end spells such as Gigaflare and Ultima.

Modding version: PSX & WotL

Discord username: eternal248#1817

"You, no less human than we? Ha! Now there's a beastly thought. You've been less than we from the moment your baseborn father fell upon your mother in whatever gutter saw you sired! You've been chattel since you came into the world drenched in common blood!"

With respect to the Seeq being annoying, one thing you could do with a Viking would be to turn it into a lightning/water-based version of the Vartan.

That's actually something you could play out across several different classes (a different one for each element). This could fill in some of your gaps, like the Alchemist. If you add elemental resistances/immunities/absorptions to monsters/jobs it makes things even more interesting.

This might beg the question of what to do with a job like a Black Mage if you have individual classes that can do a specific element better. Personally, Black Mages get kind of boring for me and the increased MP cost relative to increased spell power means that I never bother with them past early game.

You could refashion the Black Mage into an elemental-specific job. You could also change it into a reverse Red Mage - whereas the Red Mage gets cure/protect/shell (I'd probably swap silence for a buff), you could give the Black Mage poison/silence/blind/sleep/etc.

looking forward to the changes, and since you haven't decided about the myriddons I thought I could share some of what I have tried. (I was definitely on the same thought train btw)

firstly some weapon changes were made to make this work. 2h weapons were increased in damage compared to 1h weapons, and 2h broadswords got a +1 range (weaker than other 2h weapons).

Cymbol bash:I gave them a shield requiring 50% damage knockback with a targeting effect and a 1/2 debuff chance delay turn. if you have a 1 handed knight sword, then the targeting only helps if the enemy moves towards you next turn (works well with melee units). If the delay turn debuff procs then no extra attack, but you do get a delay turn. However if you have monkey grip and a broadsword you will still be in range for the second attack! Makes monkey grip actually useful (combined with stronger 2handers)!

Not sure if taunt came with immobalize or not when you made it (I lose track of some changes I make) but it really works well with this skill: once berserked-> attacks myrmiddon cuz it cant go anywhere else-> myrmiddon uses cymbol bash and pushes unit back (avoid counter) and targets unit for next turn. Can shut down a melee unit pretty well 1 on 1 while doing decent damage.

probs dont need the delay turn with the skill but i havent felt the need to change it yet.

Arc of Might: Basically a target and focus 3 tiles away, also has a defence up on self. Next turn does lots of damage but requires either immobile targets or targets in melee to approach. works well with the other skills other units have to immobilize etc. Also causes loss of movement next turn on seld so there is a drawback to using it if it fails, units is kinda stuck doing nothing or sub optimal things when stuck out of range

Also turned the aoe skills you had into shield requiring skills that did 25% weapon based elemental damage along with damage based on units own max health, the target max health and some of this units missing health respectively (to give some offensive abilities tied to its tankyness as opposed to pure attack growth etc) these are kinda hard to do what i want so i wont list the specifics here.

Another note regarding equipment rending: Yes it is kinda useless but if you alter stat gains and equipment level it becomes useful. lowering offensive stat growth by 40% or so and defensive by 30% while increasing the defence on armors (mdef on robes and def on heavy armour etc) then a tanky banga in platemail will shrug off arrows and such, only really strong base damage abilities or weapons can hurt (or magic). But rending the equipment can drop the def by a lot making him much squishier. Its what i did in my game to balance some skills, its not perfect but I find it helped a lot. Also buffed shields def and mdef to make shield bearer useful etc.

These are just some of the things that I did and you are free to use them however you want, if you want. Also target with a melee unit can be pretty funny, when it triggers it will always face the unit in the direction of the target but will only swing if something is adjacent in that direction. It does hit diagonally as well, but I'm not sure if that is because of the +1 range of the broadswords. It will hit friendlies beside you in between the target and the unit even if the target is across the map which is awesome

I'm glad you put as much thought as you did into the monsters, they all feel like they have their own niche, even the three melee tanks like you said in your post. Go figure that the tomatoes had that many skills. And honestly, I'd like to see resonate remain in some form as the 'target requires a bladed weapon' effect has a lot of potential, I just don't like that it hits everything in the battle. Maybe a small AoE or something would work, or maybe a different effect than disable.

The espers are definitely interesting now, I'm sure I'll give them all a shot as I unlock them. Thanks for letting me know about the AI and self quicken, that means I have a few skills to redesign.

Regarding revival skills, I saw over on the thread for the A2 tools, someone figured out that one of the 'unknown' check boxes on page two of the ability editor controls whether the AI can use a skill. Maybe if you check that off on a revival skill the AI can use it? I'll test it for myself when I get home tomorrow, but if that works it would be pretty groundbreaking.

@bearPRIME: I really like your idea of giving 2h broadswords +1 range; I haven't messed around with equipment much, but some weapon classes could definitely use some love like that. Also I never thought to try out the target effect on a melee job, that seems pretty fun!

EDIT:

Forgot to point out that I love the idea of giving the alchemist the four classical elements, thumbs up!

DOUBLE EDIT XTREME:

I think I've finally figured out almost all the skillsets for my own hack. However, I've never used a hex editor before, which I obviously need in order to change skill names/descriptions/animations. I want to look up some tutorials on the subject, but before I do, which hex editor would you recommend for editing FFTA2?

I've put together all of the tools I use for FFTA2 GG and made a mini modding suite folder for you to use. I use Goldfinger, and load the included FFTA2 Text Table to make text edits. The spreadsheets have the offset references, so you can just go directly to what you want to edit and make your changes. Hope this helps!

I think I've figured out what to do with the Viking's four unique abilities. Given that Thunder magicks would be far more random, I wanted to give them some physical attacks that also play to their role as thieves, making them pirate-y Red Mage/Thieves in their own unique way.

Flood: Deals a minor amount of Water damage to all enemies while standing in a water tile.Relinquish: Deals physical damage to an adjacent target and inflicts Magick Down, while bestowing Magick Up on the user.Plunder: Deals physical damage to an adjacent target's HP and MP, and restores the user's MP by half of the damage dealt.Despoil: Deals physical damage to an adjacent target and inflicts Resistance Down, while bestowing Resistance Up on the user.

« Last Edit: December 30, 2017, 05:39:10 PM by Eternal »

Modding version: PSX & WotL

Discord username: eternal248#1817

"You, no less human than we? Ha! Now there's a beastly thought. You've been less than we from the moment your baseborn father fell upon your mother in whatever gutter saw you sired! You've been chattel since you came into the world drenched in common blood!"

Thanks! This should be very helpful, especially the text to hex tool, as I'm still having trouble getting used to counting in hexidecimal.

Regarding the Viking, the new skills are nice, a good recycling of the Ravager concept of draining stats from a few pages back. Relinquish especially is sorely needed for the Vikin's magic skills, as the Seeq have very little in terms of Magick growths. I'm still not a fan of having to stand in a water tile to use Flood, again because of how few maps really have water tiles. In fact, I'm pretty sure none of the repeatable battle maps (random battles and repeatable quests) even have water tiles at all. This means that you only have a finite amount of chances to even use the skill before you do the quests that have water tiles in them. Afterward, the skill might as well not even exist. Maybe a minor nitpick on my part, but that is a pet peeve of mine with this game.

Flood is just kind of a fill-in skill for now until I'm sold on something else. If it does get put in, it'll likely be temporary.

On an unrelated note, the changes are about halfway done! Yay progress. I also had a really weird idea that I came up with as I went to sleep last night. It struck me and I just had to pull out my phone and put it into notes. It's super random, but it'd pay homage to Celdia's Complete Patch and a favorite series of mine- Castlevania.

The concept? Kupo Belmont! ...well, the job wouldn't be called that. The job would be a much needed Moogle warrior job (since Moogle Hero is a little more akin to a mage than a true warrior). Behold... the Slayer! I haven't inserted the job yet, since I was hoping to get feedback on it, but it would basically be a Moogle warrior job akin to Soldier, Warrior, etc., but with a focus on killing monsters and undead. Against humans, their skills would be downright boring, but the gimmick is that each ability would have an additional effect against monsters, and yet another additional effect against undead, making them perfect for slaying nearby monsters (whereas Hunters are better from afar, and Necromancers are better from afar and deal strictly with Undead and other effects). It needs to be tested, but in theory it should work. (In theory being the operative phrase, at least.)

Each skill is based off of a traditional subweapon from the Castlevania series, each having a different effect with varying use based on the situation. Most of the skills consume MP equal to the rough Heart cost in the series, and they focus on melee-mid range attacks.

Knife:-Cost: 1 MP-Throws knives in front of oneself, dealing physical damage in a cone in front of the user. Monsters: Damage is doubled. Undead: Damage is doubled and as a chance to inflict Blind.

Axe:-Cost: 4 MP-Hurls an axe in an arc, dealing physical damage to a distant target. Monsters: Attack will never miss. Undead: Attack will never miss and has a chance to inflict Defense Down.

Holy Water:-Cost: 3 MP-Lobs a flask of blessed water, dealing Fire physical damage in a small line in front of the user. Monsters: Has a chance to inflict Poison. Undead: Has a chance to inflict Poison and removes KO'd Undead.

Crystal:Cost: 2 MP-Lobs an explosive chunk of rock, dealing minor physical damage to units in a small area. Monsters: Has a chance to inflict Attack Down. Undead: Has a chance to inflict Evasion Down and Attack Down.

Vibhuti:Cost: 3 MP-Throws purifying salt on the ground in front of the user, dealing physical damage to a single adjacent target. Monsters: Removes all buffs. Undead: Inflicts Magick Down and removes all buffs.

Cross:Cost: 100 MP-Unleashes divine power around the user, dealing heavy Holy physical damage to adjacent units. Monsters: Has a very small chance to inflict Death. Undead: Has a chance to inflict Petrify and a very small chance to inflict Death.

EDIT: Not sure what I'd do about descriptions, but I might just make them as descriptive as possible and have people figure them out themselves or read this. Also, no Belmont is complete without a Whip, so I may end up replacing either Vibhuti or Crystal for an auto-Mastered Whip skill that deals weapon damage to two tiles in a line in front of the user. Since it would deal weapon damage, you can use Whip any time with any weapon. I also want to make a Pot Roast skill using Cuisine's animation, but I'm undecided yet.

« Last Edit: January 03, 2018, 10:24:06 PM by Eternal »

Modding version: PSX & WotL

Discord username: eternal248#1817

"You, no less human than we? Ha! Now there's a beastly thought. You've been less than we from the moment your baseborn father fell upon your mother in whatever gutter saw you sired! You've been chattel since you came into the world drenched in common blood!"

The Slayer is a really cool idea for a job, which one would it be replacing? I think the idea of having progressively more potent effects for monsters and undead is a good way to handle a specialist class as they'll be useful in a large amount of the battles in the game.

I strongly support the idea of the whip skill as that's a very clever way to give a character a 'built in' weapon and fits the theme perfectly. I would trade it for Vibhuti, that seems like the least interesting skill. I also think a skill using the pot roast animation would be a nice touch, don't know which skill would be worth trading for a self-heal though.

About the descriptions, I don't think you could fit the descriptions and the flavor text in game with that many effects in most cases sadly. You could just have the effects written in-game and leave the flavor text in the thread or readme or wherever. At least then you know what you're using while playing the hack and have the flavor text available if you're into that.

Conveniently enough, it'd be replacing the Animist (I was going to do a Summoner-ish job with it originally, but decided I had enough magic jobs), which also solves the problem of people having issues with monsters early on. Now they have a job that can easily tackle tough monster fights early on!

"You, no less human than we? Ha! Now there's a beastly thought. You've been less than we from the moment your baseborn father fell upon your mother in whatever gutter saw you sired! You've been chattel since you came into the world drenched in common blood!"

Today I finished making a very basic guide for the next release, with the guide going over each job, their Move/Jump, what they can use, and a detailed description of their skills. What do you guys think? The .pdf is attached. Looking forward to a new release very soon! All I have to do is go through and finish up a few non-monster skills, make the Judicer, go over monster skills, and then playtest.

"You, no less human than we? Ha! Now there's a beastly thought. You've been less than we from the moment your baseborn father fell upon your mother in whatever gutter saw you sired! You've been chattel since you came into the world drenched in common blood!"